---
title: "Table of Contents Usage: 46.3% of Long Top Guides"
url: https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/table-of-contents-usage
description: "46.3% of 3,767 long informational top-5 pages have a table of contents, 47.4% at #1. Use rises from 38.5% at 1,501 to 2,500 words to 63.6% above 4,000."
lang: en
---
Data Study ยท On-Page SEO
# Table of Contents Usage: 46.3% of Long Top Guides
Of 3,767 informational top-5 ranking pages over 1,500 words, 46.3% have a table of contents, and 47.4% of those at #1 do.
- 3,767 long informational pages
- PageSpeed Matters, Oct 2026
Matt Suffoletto: https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/author/matt-suffoletto
Founder, PageSpeed Matters Published Oct. 19, 2026 6 min read
## Key Findings
1. **46.3%** of 3,767 informational top-5 ranking pages over 1,500 parsed words have a table of contents, meaning 3 or more working jump links or a TOC container. Copy stat
2. **47.4%** of 715 #1 pages have a TOC, against 46.0% of 3,052 pages at #2 to #5, and #5 is lowest at **43.6%** of 775. Copy stat
3. TOC use rises with length: **38.5%** of 2,098 informational pages at 1,501 to 2,500 words, 51.0% of 993 at 2,501 to 4,000 words and **63.6%** of 676 above 4,000 words. Copy stat
4. Intent barely moves the rate for long pages: **46.3%** of informational (3,767), 45.9% of commercial (2,069), 44.6% of transactional (1,036) and **51.0%** of navigational (457) pages have one. Copy stat
5. Among informational verticals with 30+ long pages, recipes lead at **76.9%** of 307, while real estate (**22.7%** of 44) and SaaS comparison (25.5% of 94) rarely use a TOC. Copy stat
Long informational ranking pages with a table of contents, by word count
1,501 to 2,500 words 38.5%
2,501 to 4,000 words 51%
Over 4,000 words 63.6%
Source: PageSpeed Matters. Informational top 5 Google US results for 10,019 keywords, 3,767 pages over 1,500 words, Oct 2026.
Collapsed or JavaScript-only tables of contents may be missed, so these shares are floors.
In this study
## Table of contents on long informational top-5 pages, by length
| Parsed words | Pages | Has TOC | TOC container found |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1,501 to 2,500 | 2,098 | 38.5% | 7.3% |
| 2,501 to 4,000 | 993 | 51.0% | 15.7% |
| Over 4,000 | 676 | 63.6% | 33.4% |
| All over 1,500 | 3,767 | 46.3% | 14.2% |
Source: PageSpeed Matters, Oct 2026. Has TOC means 3 or more working jump links or a TOC container.
## Summary
A table of contents is a common recommendation for long guides: it lets readers jump straight to the part they need. We checked how many long, informational pages that rank in Google's top 5 actually have one.
Just under half. Of 3,767 informational top-5 ranking pages over 1,500 words, 46.3% have a table of contents, and 47.4% of those at #1 do. Length is the strongest pattern in the data: the longer the page, the more likely it has one.
## What we measured
We started from the top 5 Google US results for 10,019 keywords in October 2026: 49,855 pages, of which 29,776 had readable text. We kept pages whose keyword has a primary search intent of informational, as labeled by a model, and that have more than 1,500 parsed words. That leaves 3,767 pages.
A page counts as having a table of contents when the rendered page has 3 or more working jump links, meaning in-page anchor links whose targets exist on the page, or a recognisable table of contents container.
Collapsed or JavaScript-only tables of contents may be missed, so treat 46.3% as a floor. We did not try to tell which tool or plugin built a table of contents, and we make no claims about that.
## Nearly half of long guides have a table of contents
46.3% of the 3,767 long informational pages in the top 5 have a table of contents. By this measure, more than half of long ranking guides show no table of contents. A recognisable table of contents container was found on 14.2% of these pages.
So most of the tables of contents we found were detected through their working jump links, not through a recognisable container. A plain list of working anchor links is the most common form.
46.3%
Share of 3,767 informational top-5 ranking pages over 1,500 words that have a table of contents.
## Longer pages use one more often
Length is the clearest pattern. 38.5% of 2,098 informational pages at 1,501 to 2,500 words have a table of contents. That rises to 51.0% of 993 pages at 2,501 to 4,000 words and 63.6% of 676 pages above 4,000 words.
The container share climbs the same way, from 7.3% to 15.7% to 33.4%. On very long pages, a table of contents is the norm rather than the exception, which fits its purpose: the more there is to scroll through, the more a reader gains from jump links.
## Position and intent barely move the rate
Position makes little difference. 47.4% of 715 #1 pages have a table of contents, against 46.0% of 3,052 pages at #2 to #5. The lowest is #5, at 43.6% of 775 pages. Having one is not what separates the #1 result from the rest.
Intent barely moves the rate either, once pages are long. 46.3% of informational pages (3,767), 45.9% of commercial pages (2,069) and 44.6% of transactional pages (1,036) over 1,500 words have one. Navigational pages are slightly higher at 51.0% of 457, likely because long navigational results include documentation and help pages, which are often built with section links.
## Recipes lead, real estate and SaaS comparisons lag
Among informational verticals with 30 or more long pages, recipes lead by a wide margin: 76.9% of 307 long recipe pages have a table of contents, likely because long recipe posts split the story, ingredients and steps into sections that readers want to skip between.
Real estate (22.7% of 44) and SaaS comparison pages (25.5% of 94) rarely use one. Those groups are small, so read them as directional. Real estate guides are likely to be local market pages, and SaaS comparison pages are often built around feature tables, two formats where a list of jump links is less common.
## What this means for your site
A table of contents is a reader feature first. The data shows it is common on long ranking pages and found on most pages above 4,000 words, but it does not show that adding one moves a page up.
- Add a table of contents to guides long enough that readers need to jump around, especially above 2,500 words.
- Use real anchor links to your H2 headings, with matching IDs, so the links work without JavaScript.
- Keep it short: link to main sections, not every subheading.
- Write headings that describe each section, since they double as the table of contents labels.
- Check that a collapsed table of contents still has its links in the rendered HTML.
## Sources
- PageSpeed Matters analysis of Google US top 5 results for 10,019 keywords, with model-assigned search intent labels, October 2026
- MDN Web Docs, linking to an element on the same page: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/a
## Embed this research
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Source: Table of Contents Usage: 46.3% of Long Top Guides - PageSpeed Matters
## Frequently asked questions
### How many top-ranking pages have a table of contents?
46.3% of 3,767 informational top-5 ranking pages over 1,500 words have one, and 47.4% of those at #1 do. Because collapsed or JavaScript-only versions may be missed, that is a floor.
### How long should a page be before it needs a table of contents?
Use rises with length. 38.5% of long informational pages at 1,501 to 2,500 words have one, 51.0% at 2,501 to 4,000 words and 63.6% above 4,000 words.
### Does a table of contents help a page rank #1?
Our data does not show that. 47.4% of #1 pages have one against 46.0% of pages at #2 to #5, a very small gap.
A working table of contents is a small template change that makes long guides easier to use. Need help with this? See our on-page SEO services (https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/services/on-page-seo).
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How we measured
## Methodology & Source
Data source
Top 5 Google US results for 10,019 keywords, informational pages over 1,500 words
Collection date
October 2026
Sample
3,767 long informational pages
Release
PageSpeed Matters, Oct 2026
3,767 informational pages over 1,500 parsed words. A table of contents means 3 or more working in-page jump links or a table of contents container. Informational means the keyword's primary search intent label, which is model-assigned. Collapsed or JavaScript-only tables of contents may be missed, so 46.3% is a floor. The data does not show which tool or plugin built a table of contents.
Using this data?
## Cite this study
Link back to the study when you cite it.
APA
Matt Suffoletto. (2026). Table of Contents Usage: 46.3% of Long Top Guides. PageSpeed Matters. https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/table-of-contents-usage
Plain link
Table of Contents Usage: 46.3% of Long Top Guides - PageSpeed Matters - https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/table-of-contents-usage
## Related studies
- On-Page SEO H2 Usage on #1 Results: 19.8% Have None: https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/h2-usage-statistics
- On-Page SEO Heading Hierarchy Errors: 44.8% of Top 1M Pages Skip a Level: https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/heading-hierarchy-errors
- On-Page SEO Internal Links on #1 Results: 13 Median per Page: https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/internal-links-per-page
- On-Page SEO Top Result Reading Level 2026: Grade 11.8 Median: https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/top-result-reading-level
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